Why Economic & Political Uprisings are civil means needed to end the life of unproductive Government of South Sudan

South Sudanese are indeed a great people. They are people endowed with very strong heart who continuously suffer in dignified silence even when there’s need to rise up in demand for certain rights. This is exactly the situation South Sudanese find themselves in at a time when their own government should have stood up for them.

The economic hardships we’re facing are not less than the economic hardships and situation which caused President Ben Ali of Tunisia to flee, President Ali Abdellah Saleh of Yemen to leave office and flee and the great President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt to resign and put onr trial up to now.

The causes and conditions of this so-called Arab Spring which almost swept through the entire Arab world are not less than the economic hardships we’re facing here in South Sudan. Our economic situation is much worse than that of the Arab Spring World.

Our unemployment rate is beyond hundred per cent level. Hundreds of South Sudanese go to bed on empty stomachs. Some are already dead and the rest are on their way to the graves. This is worse than that of the Arab Spring.

The only difference is that we’re used to patiently enduring hardships of all sorts meanwhile the citizens of the countries where the Arab spring burst out aren’t used to this kind of situation.

But the questions many south Sudanese are asking are: what’s the government of South Sudan really doing? What exactly is the role of the Ministry of finance and Economic Planning? How about the Central bank, what’s its role? Which institution is truly responsible for economic policies and planning? And which institution is responsible for the implementation of national monetary policies in South Sudan?

Hard questions a layman like me can’t grapple to answer. But to answer some questions on matters of facts and law, the Central Bank has its own share of failure for it is the one that is charged by law to formulate monetary policy, promote and maintain price stability, maintain a stable exchange rate, and maintain sound, efficient and effective banking system.

But the Central bank instantly failed in its function to strictly regulate, maintain sound, effective and efficient banking system when it allows all Forex Bureaus and Commercial Banks to commercialize dollars instead of keeping it as a medium of exchange.

The Central Bank commercialized the dollar, making it an item for trade and not a medium of exchange causing hikes in almost every item on sale in the market.

Today, the rate of 1 dollar stood at 37 SSP, meaning that one hundred dollar is equal to 3,700 SSP causing inflation rate to rise more than 250%, something which never happened in any country around the world.

The two institutions, ministry of Finance and Economic Planning and the Central Bank have completely failed us with their weak measures and an untenable modality of strategizing the efficiency of economy.

It seems that in South Sudan, everything runs on its own. Traders are selling and raising prices on their own, Central bank floating the rate of the hard currency as it wishes unquestionably.

The luckiest rich few are manipulating everything from the Ministry of Finance with their so-called LCs to the Central Bank to the market at the expense of the downtrodden poor South Sudanese who have no ability or the energy to do anything about it or change the status quo.

The authorities both at the ministry of finance and economic planning and the central bank together with their cohorts are responsible for this economic downturn.

We entrusted hyenas with responsibility to look after our goats and sheep. We gave them power to roast any goat or sheep they wish amongst our goats and sheep. This is why this economic turmoil ensued and is the sole reason you can’t understand the head and the tail of who is responsible and who’s not in this country.

The country seems to have been left on its own whim to turn its economic downturn into economic boom. We’re convinced that truly our government is indeed a boondoggled government.

Where’s the Joshua? Or is he the driver of this vehicle that is taking South Sudanese to hell earlier than the days that God planned for them each at a time?

Let our government know that the root causes of the Arab Spring aren’t more than ours and that Arab Spring may inevitably ensue in this part of the world for we may be forced to violently demand our socio-economic rights to food and decent living like others.

We can’t permit others to enjoy live at our expense on resources that belongs to all of us. If you invite a musician for 1.5 million dollars while hundreds of South Sudanese are going to bed with an empty stomach, thousands are starving to death and hundreds are dying, some have already died of hunger, where did you get that money from?

What a country! It obvious, the money was gotten from the public finances because the father of the person who contracted the musician is the governor of the Central Bank, you can take any money you want and nobody can hold him to account.

Thus, if the president can’t think twice to bring in responsible personalities with expertise both at the ministry of finance and at the central bank to turn things around, he must be prepared for eventualities from the people of South Sudan who will not in any way continue to suffer at the hands of selfish and corrupt leaders who buy their positions at the expense of the people.

There will be time when the people of South Sudan stand up to forcefully demand their socio-economic rights from these oligarchs and mafias. We will surely touch these untouchable mafias and oligarchs who scoop all our money for their selfish enrichment unless they rescue themselves from this shambles.

I assure you, economic and political uprising as necessary civil means of ending the life of a repugnant and an unproductive government like the government of South Sudan will be inevitable.

Mr. President, this is a fact. Look at the faces of South Sudanese; listen to their voices on the streets on how they are suffering and you will dismiss this failed minister of finance who buys his position using public money and the weak, lousy and ailing governor of the Central Bank; the danger is surely haunting you and it will sooner reach your gate if you don’t act swiftly.

The writer is a Master of Laws (LLM) candidate at School of Law, University of Nairobi. He can be reached via: tongbullen@gmail.com

17 Comments

Tong Kot
You brought up a very interesting point here as I quote from your article:

“There will be time when the people of South Sudan stand up to forcefully demand their socio-economic rights from these oligarchs and mafias. We will surely touch these untouchable mafias and oligarchs who scoop all our money for their selfish enrichment unless they rescue themselves from this shambles.”

But the question to ask is when will this ” forcefully demand ” our rights occur? And who will start it? Every time one leader rises up to oppose the regime of Salva Kirr/ JCE/ SPLA, that person(s) tribe become targeted. Instead of focusing on the individuals that the regime deemed dangerous, no; they turn against the community members where their opponents come from, this was done to everyone including Dinka themselves punishing one another for speaking up. Now see what is happening to the people in President’s own native areas; not because the president wants to do good thing but the consequences of unthoughtful failed policies results to this: http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article58472. What a shame?

It is high time that true nationalists like you and I start calling ourselves PROUDLY South Sudanese first then African and then our ethnicities come after. Until these mentalities of tribalism change, we should not expect any thing new.

If this name SPLA really means so much; why don’t they start calling themselves: SSPLA translating to South Sudanese Peace Loving Associations? Just to put a spin from terror to tranquility.
Eli Wani

You ask very academic questions that require geuine answers. However, having ill-educated, unskilled and stupid persons placed in sensitive positions and unable to lead and manage state affairs is what is keeping South Sudan stuck. If South Sudan just couldn´t manage the 10 states, how much difficult will manage 28 states? That´s where somebody with simple analysis and common sense would have asked him/herself. Sadly, many idlers and academic fraudsters have taken over the Country. What is required is complete institutional reform of the System. Cattle keepers are best keeping cows and crop growers are best growing cassava. Once you ursurp that, then it becomes a mess. You can´t talk of economy, where there are no economists but a handful of accountants like Kornelio Koryom or David Deng Athorbei, who are complete failures.

Uprising will not be possible in South Sudan like what happened in Arab World because of simple fact: the security apparatus are dominated by one tribe and you know it well, they are ready to protect the regime at any cost because the president is a Jieng like them.
The people of South Sudan are suffering in silence as you said it because the choices are fraught with danger either you die by bullet or hunger will kill you in silence.

This is kind of topic that we need in this forums, not land grubbing and Dinka did this Dinka did that, like schools children.who cares abuot land being taken by govt officials ,its their duty to regulates the land issues not tribes wether it is city government or state gifts.thanks Mr Kuchnin for inlighting about this issues.

Eli what you are trying to say is Riek Machar military quo. But Riek was apart of looting machine in Juba, that is why he fought his way back in because he could not afford to be a stand by while looting is going on, after he was fired.

Stop blaming Eli and Dr. Machar for the war, the power greedy Dinka instigated. Dinka-Kiir massacred Nuer civilians to show his strength and used the Nuer genocide as example to any other tribe which it son might show interest in running for South Sudan presidency position. 99% of Dinka and some few figureheads from other tribes celebrated the death of Nuer civilians else where in South Sudan with the hope that they would get the position previously hold by Nuer in the government.

Dinka thought that massacring Nuer will grow the economy of South Sudan faster and would give Dinka who did not have jobs some room to occupy Nuer positions. But, the opposite of Dinka’s dream is now become true. The economy is not growing. More than 50 percent of Equatorians young men whom they hope to use against Nuer have rebelled, Non-Dinka tribes in Western Bar el Gazal have rebelled, Shilluk have rebelled and the economy of South Sudan has rebelled. Dinka who instigated violence are dying of hunger everyday and every where in South Sudan.

Today, Dinka are running like hell with higher speed to Sudan in search of food after seeing the worse consequences of the war they started. Dinka Parieng are travelling to Khartoum on foot everyday taking inappropriate routes that risk their lives. Nevertheless, Dinka Northern Bar el Gazal, Dinka Warrap and Dinka Western Bar el Gazal are moving with great speed to various Darfur’s regions of Sudan leaving behind blind, cripples, and elderly people like unwanted furniture in search of food and safety.

Ultimately, I am wondering why Kiir and Jieng Council of Elders do not want to use the salaries of over 30,000 Nuer who were massacred in Juba and some more South Sudanese who were murdered elsewhere in South Sudan to feed the Dinka’ population and make them rich. Shame on you Kiir and Jieng Councill of Elders.

Mr your article is a good topic but it lack technicals solutions to current South Sudan economy crisis.first of all you forgot to show root cause and the solution.secondly you that South Sudan economy colapsing relates to peace agreement implementation. The worst thing you compare our country to the Arab people who are sophisticated and advance then us.thirdly you calling for changing of government mean while you see the peac had already approach. Please try to correct your article first before you put it on Internet. Are you confusing or you confusing people? Please not the following.
1.the economy collapsing started as jeing Elders government started denounce and refunded to implement August peace accord.
2. The international community said South are responsible to fixe economy crisis by forming the transitional unity government
So why do you think Dinka Will mak coup again the unity transitional unity government.when the transitional to be in place in a week to come. President Kiir had no clue how to resolve economy crisis when they asked him about economy he said I don’t want to talk about economy.

Dear S.Sudanese do not expose your ignorance in public net. First of all, do we know the cost of the war? Do we know how many properties have we destroy in this senses war? When the war broke out, how was our economy? Was the country producing some goods? The same question asked by our brother to the above mention ministries should be thrown to our academicians because for an economy of the country to grow, the quality of the education matters. So the question to Mr Akuc is how many entrepreneurs have the universities produced in the last ten years? How many job craters have graduated and how many need employment? I need also to ask our brother how many people do you now employ in your firm ad a law student, I expect you you to be practising your profession. Let us stop politicising our economic difficulties because we should learn from advanced economy like America has been affected by the two major wars it has carried out in Iraq and Afghanistan though the war was not in America door steps. They have to hurriedly pull out their troops before they could end these wars. So what can academic like Akuc say if they can teach for ten years and still the country is importing food from the neighbouring countries.
Please my people think of intellectual politics. People will not go to street because we know all this suffering is brought by people who believe in violence as a means of getting power. So my advice is all of us have to rethink our strategies and this burden goes mostly to the academicians. You have to give a quality education that produces job creators and change the mind set of our young people. We have to listen to what Mogae is saying. We should not be looking to the other countries to save our economy but it is you and me to look for ways to fix our economy. Blaming others for the mess we brought to ourselves can’t help. Instead it is the high time we learn from our mistakes. You the educated are fighting about power and democracy while we the common people are yearning to fix the economy and development of our country.Democracy will not work perfectly as we may wish when people are poor and hungry. The hate our people have against each other is brought by poverty. So long the country remain poor the issue of rebellion will be a problem for any leader who come to power. Rebuilding a nation is not a joke. Most of you has been spoiled by the Arabs by getting money to conspire against our own brothers. Some of us become informers . We need to be hard working people and avoid the spirit of looking for soft money. We should love our country and we should love ourselves. See the divisions among you the so called efuated or academicians, Lam, Riak,Changson, Kisenga Among and so on. Is it not a shame to you people. You a curse to S.Sudanese people.

Mr.Bentiu, Nobody celebrated the death of people if there is one like that, it may be you but Nuer and Dinkas are brothers and sisters I don’t think there is anybody between the two who will celebrated other is suffering, also you talked about dinkas running a way from So Sudan because of hunger, what about other tribes who are staying are they related with hunger? or do they eat earth if it is that
bad in our country as you put it?

folks, kiir and his henchmen are not going anywhere soon, as long as the crude oil is being exploited and there is some income to pay the troops. threat of sanctions by the united nations do not deter kiir, a weakened economy, skyrocketing inflation, corruption, a devalued currency, and a host of other ills troubling the country will not force kiir to leave. perhaps destroying the oilfields and their infrastructure (pipelines) to deprive the regime of 90 per cent of income and a sustained revolt throughout the country can send kiir packing. nothing else will dislodge the ‘dear leader’ from his comfy seat.

Mr Abai be informed that the SPLA fought Khartoum and its S. Sudanese militia guarding the oil fields for 21 years without money or any income and we defeated them. We sign the peace because we believe in democracy and the unity of our people. We believe in brotherhood and peaceful coexistence of our people and to solve our deferences in a peaceful and civilised way. We want develop democracy in our country and we want those people who sing day and night that, they are the majority and they are Democrats to prove it after the three years. We need our people to choose who should lead them. So for us to talk of destroying the oil pipes and organise an uprising is not the best way forward. We should learn from Colombia and many other countries that war is always not the best choice. This is the reason Kirr has chosen for peace instead of war. He is bringing on board even the arch rivals of the splm in opp. He had demonstrated this before the independence, after the independence and even now he is doing it as seen by the Arrow boy and I think this is the best way forward. The president can be trusted as being a peace maker and unifyer. I am not saying this because I am his supporter but because there is a clear record of Kirr actions which nobody could deny or rub it away.
So my people, let us choose peace instead of violence. We should leave our people to enjoy peace. We have to demonstrate our singing democracy, democracy by actions. So let us wait for the three years and see who the people want. Lame acquisition and lairs should not be given room.

alex, please quit repeating propaganda that the junta in juba has been peddling since december 2013 that riek machar and his friends plotted a coup d’etat, and kiir is a benevolent leader that only wants peace for the country. how about you ask kiir and the other 75 thieves to return the $4 billion (american dollars) that they looted from the state treasury? south sudanese deserve better.